The only First Lady that grew up in a communist country.
Going back to her beginnings and also the historical firsts she brought to the White House, Melania Trump, born Melanija Knavs, is the only First Lady who has grown up in something other than a democracy. Back when she was born, Slovenia was a communist country and not even a country in its own right, as it was part of Yugoslavia.
This did not stop her, as she seems to have always wanted to be a model and was always interested in fashion, as people from her small native town remember her as always being “fashionable” and outside of the fashion dictated by the stores of the time.
She is not the first president’s wife to be born outside of the USA, but compared to Louisa Catherine Johnson, she did experience what it was like to live in a different political climate.
